Since we no longer have any way to get people into space, this is the only way they can claim anything like manned space flight. Even if the new "men" are "action figures" (don't call them dolls). These "action figures" will soon gain enough "rights", that they will be able to lay claim on any planets they land on.

Frankly/kicks on reverb and echo/ "MEATBAGS IN SPAAAAAACE!"/end effects/ is a fucking stupid idea. Our engine tech just isn't far enough along to make meatbags in space worth doing, meatbags need shields and shitters and food and a place to sleep, they are fussy little critters.

When we are broke as a joke, fighting THREE WARS while the teabaggers demand "No taxes on teh rich LOL!" frankly it is THIS, this right here, that NASA SHOULD be doing. For less than the cost of keeping meatbags in LEO for a month

This is the first major mission to Jupiter since Galileo which was launched in 1989. Unlike Galileo this won't be focusing on the moons as much (which is sort of too bad since they are some of the most interesting things about Jupiter since they might harbor life.) Also, as TFA discusses, this has a lot of stuff to help deal with the high radiation which hasn't been used before. Seeing how exactly that technology works will help out a lot with future probes to high radiation or high magnetic field environments. One other nice thing about this is that we might get more information about the core which is currently hypothesized to be metalic hydrogen because the hydrogen is just under such high pressure that it becomes a solid, and that's freaking awesome.

Also, as TFA discusses, this has a lot of stuff to help deal with the high radiation which hasn't been used before. Seeing how exactly that technology works will help out a lot with future probes to high radiation or high magnetic field environments.

We already know that, we have been launching rad-hard spacecraft for 3 decades now. They used a good approach - brute force shielding. That allows them to use relatively weak but high-performance parts (and presumably, less expensive parts). Titan

Truly amazing that we, the only sentient life-forms we know of in the known universe, can conquer the nearly insurmountable forces and vastness of space, to discover the unknown. Restores my faith in humanity just a little bit!

It is cheaper that way, since a smaller rocket can be used when launching the probe at a slower speed. Also the Voyagers weighted only 722kg, while Juno weighs 3625kg. The higher mass decreases the speed, unless a much larger rocket is used.

The Voyager probes only had to go about half way around the solar system before reaching Jupiter, and they basically traveled directly to each of the planets they visited. Voyager 1 went off into the void after its Jupiter flyby, while Voyager 2 used Jupiter and Saturn to slingshot itself toward Uranus and Neptune before leaving the solar system. In both cases, they were programmed to achieve solar escape velocity by the time their flybys were done, using however much fuel was necessary for the job.